Show Me the Money

Having a coke problem is the world’s way of telling you that you have too much money. Having a car addiction is just as costly.

Since buying my car about 9 months ago, I have put about $3000 just in parts into it and there’s another $3000-5000 to go. These aren’t necessary to any normal person, but to us car people, it’s the best place to put our money. My parents keep telling me that it’s throwing money away and I’ll never get it back, but the truth is everyone has something that they throw their money away on. This is my drug of choice.

The Costs

So what has that $3000 gone into?

Less than a week after I bought the car my first mod was on its way. A cold air intake for $300, then came the exhaust. Which I could have spent a lot more on, but just decided to go with what is essentially a muffler delete for another $300. After that was the stereo, which is probably the most useful of the things I’ve done because I had no way to connect my phone before, but me being me I had to get the expensive one. So that was $800. Then I got yellow fog lights, a front chin spoiler, and painted the spoiler black, all for $200. That probably made the biggest difference per dollar of anything that I’ve done. The most recent thing I’ve done is put new wheels and tires on for $1300. When you add all that up it puts me at $2900, and I’m sure I’ve done something small that I’m not remembering, so $3000 is a pretty good estimate.

What’s Next????

When I put the new tires on I selected performance tires which highlighted where some improvements could be made. The first thing I noticed was the seats, which are in good enough condition, but are not very good for driving fast. I slide around a lot. To get a good set of front seats I’m probably looking at roughly $1000-1500. Then the suspension needs improving, and the one I’ve selected is $1700. After that, I plan to do a couple more engine mods, nothing too extreme since it is my daily driver and it needs to be reliable, but there’s another $1000 or so. When you add those 3 things up you’re at $3700 on the low end, and that’s not including anything else I might find.

Why?

When you add up everything I’ve already done and if I do everything I plan to, the I’ll have put $6700 into it. That’s not including the cost of the car or maintenance because those get paid regardless of what I do. So why would I do all this? Like I said earlier, everyone has something that they blow their money on. For some people, it’s material things, and for others, it’s experiences. For me, cars fall somewhere in between. Most people see cars as materialistic things to show off, but especially for us car people, we see the experiences. The people, the drives, working on the car; all those things wouldn’t exist without this love of cars.

It isn’t necessarily about the car, the car is a catalyst for experiences, and that’s what we’re all really striving for.